SERIES: Healthcare in America, David Knapp, This Is the Bronx

Posted by Judy Esterquest179sc on August 13, 2018

by David Knapp — August 12, 2018

This story does not have a happy ending yet because my insurance company is demanding prior authorization for a medication which might help me. My doctor is assiduously arguing on my behalf without success. But let me begin at the beginning.

I am very active. I run, walk, bike, do Yoga, eat healthily and, until Passover of 2010, considered myself to be very healthy. As my friends and colleagues can testify, nothing stops me. But during the holiday that year, I suddenly became very ill. I had uncontrolled rectal bleeding, diarrhea, bad cramping and sore muscles not to mention serious headache and chills. I remember suffering through the first part of the eight- day event with an uncontrollable bladder, embarrassment and pain. At the time, my family had been attending Chabad of Riverdale.